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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20260520T190000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20260520T200000
DTSTAMP:20260512T180544
CREATED:20260430T133707Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260430T133707Z
UID:47846-1779303600-1779307200@themarkaz.org
SUMMARY:​The "Mediterraneans" Roundtable
DESCRIPTION:Sign up now to join the discussion \nJoin Saleem Haddad\, TMR Fiction Editor\, and special guests on Wednesday\, May 20th\, 1pm EDT/ 6pm UK/ 7pm CET for a deep-dive roundtable as we pull back the curtain on our latest issue. Grab a seat at our virtual table for an evening of craft talk\, personal revelations\, and a first look at the heartbeat of this new issue. \nHow do we reconcile these different visions of the same sea? What does it mean for the Mediterranean to be both a site of longing and a site of rupture\, both a space of possibility and a space of constraint? These are some of the questions that our contributors grapple with in the essays\, fiction\, art\, and reflections that make up TMR’s newest issue\, MEDITERRANEANS. \nThis online event is free but advance registration is required. \nSign up now to join the discussion
URL:https://themarkaz.org/event/the-mediterraneans-roundtable/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20260522T153000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20260522T163000
DTSTAMP:20260512T180544
CREATED:20260424T100552Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260424T100707Z
UID:47643-1779463800-1779467400@themarkaz.org
SUMMARY:Quelle place pour la littérature en temps de guerre ?
DESCRIPTION:Quelle place pour la littérature en temps de guerre ? \nThe Markaz Review vous invite à une table ronde autour de la question de l’importance des écritures de la région SWANA (Afrique du Nord\, du Moyen-Orient et d’Asie du Sud-Ouest) en temps de guerre. L’écrivain Franco-Palestinien Jadd Hilal\, le rédacteur en chef de la revue\, Jordan Elgrably\, ainsi que la directrice de la rédaction\, Lara Vergnaud\, seront vos interlocuteurs. Ensemble\, ils réfléchiront au rôle de la langue – et plus particulièrement de l’écrit – dans un monde marqué par des conflits qui semblent ne jamais finir. La rencontre se conclura par un échange avec le public. \nCet évènement se déroulera le vendredi 22 mai à 15:30 à l’espace Marie-Rouanet sur la Promenade du Peyrou dans le cadre du festival littéraire La Comédie du Livre\, organisée par la ville de Montpellier. \nCet évènement est gratuit et ne nécessite aucune réservation. \nEn amont de l’évènement\, plongez dans notre précédente interview en compagnie de Jadd Hilal.
URL:https://themarkaz.org/event/quelle-place-pour-la-litterature-en-temps-de-guerre/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20260531T190000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20260531T200000
DTSTAMP:20260512T180544
CREATED:20260403T091049Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260403T092743Z
UID:47038-1780254000-1780257600@themarkaz.org
SUMMARY:TMR Book Club Discusses "The Man of Middling Height" by Fadi Zaghmout
DESCRIPTION:We will meet to discuss The Man of Middling Height by Fadi Zaghmout\, translated by Wasan Abdelhaq on Sunday\, May 31 at 1 pm EDT/19:00 CET. The author will also be in attendance.  \nSign up to join our discussion \nWhat if our society’s deepest prejudices weren’t about race\, gender\, or sexuality—but height? In his groundbreaking allegorical novel\, acclaimed Jordanian author and activist Fadi Zaghmout imagines just such a world\, crafting a powerful meditation on discrimination and desire that speaks directly to our contemporary debates about identity and inclusion. \nThe Man of Middling Height follows a short dressmaker whose life is upended when she meets Tallan\, a man whose middle height places him outside the rigid tall/short binary that governs their society. As their forbidden romance blossoms\, they must navigate a world where height determines everything from social status to romantic possibilities. Through their story and those of surrounding characters—including a short person in a polyamorous relationship with two tall partners\, and a tall activist who scandalously loves another tall person—Zaghmout deftly reframes contemporary discussions about gender identity and sexuality through the lens of height discrimination. \nABOUT THE AUTHOR: \nFadi Zaghmout is a Jordanian author and sexual freedoms and body rights advocate. He has published five novels\, including The Bride of Amman\, Heaven on Earth\, Laila\, and Hope on Earth. \nSign up to join our discussion
URL:https://themarkaz.org/event/the-man-of-middling-height-by-fadi-zaghmout-discussion/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20260628T190000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20260628T200000
DTSTAMP:20260512T180544
CREATED:20260403T091753Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260403T092936Z
UID:47042-1782673200-1782676800@themarkaz.org
SUMMARY:TMR Book Club Discusses "Gates of Paradise" by Taleb Alrefai
DESCRIPTION:We will meet to discuss Gates of Paradise by Taleb Alrefai\, translated by Kay Heikkinen on Sunday\, June 28 at 1 pm EDT/19:00 CET. The translator will also be in attendance.  \nSign up to join the discussion \nA fast-paced\, suspenseful novel that questions desire\, painful family dynamics\, and the preoccupations with Jihadism. \nYaqoub\, a Kuwaiti man in his sixties\, devotes all his time to managing his many successful businesses. His wife\, frustrated by the deteriorating situation of their marriage\, fills the void in her existence with unbridled consumption. But the luxury in which their family bathes cannot hide the echoes of a terrible absence\, that of Ahmad\, the youngest son\, who has turned his back on his family to join a jihadist organization in Syria. When Yaqoub discovers an attraction—as irremediable as it is unexpected—for one of his employees\, a young woman of Iranian origin\, he almost loses his footing. Caught between worry for the fate of his son and the exaltation that this budding relationship gives him\, he suddenly learns that Ahmad is being held hostage by a rival terrorist group who is demanding a colossal ransom. \nThis captivating and suspenseful novel—a true immersion in the daily life of an ultra-rich Kuwaiti family—questions desire\, painful family dynamics\, and the preoccupations with jihadism. Through the doubts of this patriarchal figure brought to review his life and his choices through the prism of unforeseen upheavals\, it is the picture of a very current society that the author paints\, in which generations and visions of the world are opposed. \nABOUT THE AUTHOR: \nTaleb Alrefai was born in Kuwait in 1958. He is the award-winning author of a dozen novels and several collections of short stories. He was named Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of Arts and Letters) in France in 2023. \nSign up to join the discussion
URL:https://themarkaz.org/event/tmr-book-club-discusses-gates-of-paradise-by-taleb-alrefai/
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20260726T190000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20260726T200000
DTSTAMP:20260512T180544
CREATED:20260429T085322Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260508T063420Z
UID:47730-1785092400-1785096000@themarkaz.org
SUMMARY:TMR Book Club Discusses "The Raven of Ruwi and Other Stories from Oman" by Hamoud Saud\, translated by Zia Ahmed.
DESCRIPTION:We will meet to discuss The Raven of Ruwi and Other Stories from Oman\, a collection of short stories by Hamoud Saud\, translated by Zia Ahmed on Sunday\, July 26 at 1 pm EDT/19:00 CET. The author and translator will also be in attendance.  \nSign up to join the discussion \nIn this lyrical collection\, author Hamoud Saud invites readers into the soul of Oman\, a country famed for its long coastline\, rugged mountains\, and stark desert landscapes. This geography provides the backdrop for stories that reveal both the beauty and hardship of a country and people on the margins. Focused on the capital city\, Saud’s Muscat is not a postcard-perfect city but a living\, breathing place of cement forests\, forgotten roundabouts\, and ravens perched on flagpoles. \nEach story is fabulist in spirit but grounded in the textures of everyday life: the scent of karak tea\, the chatter of schoolgirls\, the heat rising from asphalt. In The Raven of Ruwi\, a narrator wanders the city’s commercial district where Indian music drifts from balconies and the streets are filled with weary bank workers. In “The Sad Donkey of Muscat\,” a blind man recounts the city’s history as told to him by a donkey. And in “Post Office of the Dead\,” a forgotten postmaster receives letters from Dostoevsky and Kafka\, triggering a surreal unraveling of time and self. At once intimate and expansive\, The Raven of Ruwi and Other Stories from Oman is a powerful meditation on place\, identity\, and the stories that cities tell \nABOUT THE AUTHOR: \nHamoud Saud is an Omani writer of short stories and literary non-fiction. Among his published works are: ‘Amamat Al’askar [The Military Turban] (Alintishar Alarabi\, 2013); Almarra Al’aaeda Min Alghaba Tughanni [The Woman Returning from the Forest Sings] (Dar Suwal\, 2015); Ghurab Albank Wa Raihat Ruwi [The Bank Raven and the Scent of Ruwi] (Dar Suwal\, 2017); Ahlam Mu’alliqa ‘Ala Jisr Wadi ‘Adai [Dreams Suspended on Wadi Adai Bridge] (Dar Suwal\, 2019); and Ashjar Arrimad Wa Aa’ma Marrakesh [Trees of Ash and the Blind Man of Marrakesh] (Dar Nathr\, 2022). \nSign up to join the discussion
URL:https://themarkaz.org/event/tmr-book-club-discusses-the-raven-of-ruwi-and-other-stories-from-oman-by-hamoud-saud-translated-by-zia-ahmed/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20260830T190000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20260830T200000
DTSTAMP:20260512T180544
CREATED:20260429T090331Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260429T090705Z
UID:47737-1788116400-1788120000@themarkaz.org
SUMMARY:TMR Book Club Discusses "The Slightest Green" by Sahar Mustafa
DESCRIPTION:We will meet to discuss The Slightest Green by Sahar Mustafa on Sunday\, August 30 at 1 pm EDT/19:00 CET.  \nSign up to join the discussion \nIn the middle of dinner one evening\, Intisar Jaber receives a phone call that will upend her quiet life in Chicago: her father is dying and she must go to Palestine to pay her final respects. But Intisar hasn’t seen or heard from Hafez for nearly two decades\, ever since he abandoned her and her mother to join the resistance. \nAfter a fateful mission\, Hafez was thrown into the notorious Gahana Prison to serve a life sentence—permanently removed from her life. As soon as Intisar arrives in his village of Bayt al-Hawa\, she discovers what it means to be a stranger in her ancestral land\, the inheritance of loss\, and the high price of freedom. \nMeanwhile\, Hafez’s mother Sundus battles to save the home that she built with her husband from thieving hands. Will Intisar\, her estranged granddaughter\, help Sundus fight to reclaim it? Can they close the gaping distance between them before it’s too late? \nPowerfully etched in Sahar Mustafah’s honest and lyrical prose\, The Slightest Green explores the place—and people—we call home and how far we will go to reach them. \nABOUT THE AUTHOR:  \nSahar Mustafah is the daughter of Palestinian immigrants\, an inheritance she explores in her fiction. Her debut novel The Beauty of Your Face was named a 2020 Notable Book and Editor’s Choice by New York Times Book Review and one of Marie Claire Magazine’s 2020 Best Fiction by Women. It was long-listed for the Center for Fiction 2020 First Novel Prize\, and was a finalist for the Palestine Book Awards. Her short story “Star of Bethlehem” was awarded the Lawrence Prize for Best Fiction in 2022\, and “Tree of Life” won the 2023 Robert J. DeMott Prize. Her recent fiction is featured in Stories from the Center of the World: New Middle East Fiction and ‘The View from Gaza’ published in The Massachusetts Review. She was awarded a 2023 Jack Hazard Fellowship from New Literary Project and an Illinois Arts Council Grant. Mustafah writes and teaches outside of Chicago. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nSign up to join the discussion
URL:https://themarkaz.org/event/tmr-book-club-discusses-the-slightest-green-by-sahar-mustafa/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20260927T190000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20260927T200000
DTSTAMP:20260512T180544
CREATED:20260429T091600Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260429T091625Z
UID:47749-1790535600-1790539200@themarkaz.org
SUMMARY:TMR Book Club Discusses "Floodlines" by Saleem Haddad
DESCRIPTION:We will meet to discuss Floodlines by Saleem Haddad\, online on Sunday\, September 27 at 1 pm EDT/19:00 CET. The author will also be in attendance. \nSign up now to join the discussion \nIn the summer of 2014\, three estranged sisters are drawn back into each other’s orbits through the discovery of their late father’s lost paintings. As Mediha\, Zainab\, and Ishtar lay claim to his legacy—an inheritance laced with exile\, betrayal\, and an Iraq they no longer recognise—Zainab’s son Nizar\, a traumatized war correspondent\, returns to the family fold. As summer bleeds into autumn and the truth about the family paintings unfurls\, Mediha\, Zainab\, and Ishtar are forced to confront the personal and political betrayals that tore their family apart. \nSpanning continents and decades\, Floodlines grapples with legacy\, memory\, and family secrets\, and charts the emotional and political aftershocks of the US-led invasion of Iraq. Inspired by Haddad’s family history\, Floodlines is a contemporary Iraqi epic that explores family\, queerness\, and the disruptive legacies of (neo)colonialism in haunting\, visceral prose. \nABOUT THE AUTHOR:  \nSaleem Haddad was born in Kuwait City to an Iraqi-German mother and a Palestinian-Lebanese father. His critically acclaimed first novel\, Guapa (2016)\, was awarded both a Stonewall Honour and the Polari Prize. His writing spans novels\, short stories\, essays\, film\, and television. His directorial debut\, Marco\, premiered in 2019 and was nominated for the Iris Prize for ‘Best British Short Film’. His writing has been supported by institutions such as Yaddo and the Literarisches Colloquium Berlin. His second novel\, Floodlines\, will be published in February 2026. He lives in Lisbon\, with roots in Amman\, Beirut\, and London. \nSign up now to join the discussion
URL:https://themarkaz.org/event/tmr-book-club-discusses-floodlines-by-saleem-haddad/
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